Sherman US medium tank company project

[elias.tibbs]

So I enjoy Shermans. A lot. And I enjoy Rubicon kits. A lot. So I thought why not make a project combining the two?

So here it is. A company of Shermans. It is mostly Rubicon kits with a few Warlord, Trenchworx and Blitzkrieg kits thrown in.


The end goal will probably be a battalion...

[elias.tibbs]

First platoon completed.

[ultravanillasmurf]

Wow!

[SheriffSherman]

So I enjoy Shermans. A lot. And I enjoy Rubicon kits. A lot. So I thought why not make a project combining the two?

So here it is. A company of Shermans. It is mostly Rubicon kits with a few Warlord, Trenchworx and Blitzkrieg kits thrown in.


The end goal will probably be a battalion...

When I grow up, I want to be like you;)

My goodness!  I got 5 Rubicon shermans for Christmas and I already had three shermans and here I thought I had a lot of them   

Very cool!  Have you finished painting all of them?

[neffer38]

Very Cool! Be great to get them all on the table.

I a have 9 panzer 4s H/J i'll give you a run for your money 

[Tracks]

Nice collection.

[SheriffSherman]

Taking inspiration from Elias, I’m slowly making progress on my rubicon sherman collection.  My goal is to make them as specific as possible to either an actual photo, battle, or campaign.  That said, I don’t want to go “rivet counter” on these little guys.   I just want to approximate some of the details from the original tanks.



This one is my Israeli M1 what the IDF called the “super sherman”   I used the M4A3E8 and M4A1 76mm kit with some minor conversion needed for the sand shield mudguard piece to make the hull fit, otherwise it was easy swap of parts.  The rest of the M4A3E8 kit became a donor for the Jumbo conversion.

I’m still working on the smoke dischargers and other details...




This one will become “cobra king first in bastone” from the battle of the bulge and I used the excellent resin set plus the M4A3E8 I mentioned above as donor kit.

[SheriffSherman]

This is my “El Alamein” known as Sherman II in brit service and represents the debut of shermans in WW2.  This one required sand skirts from my M4 kit and a bit of modification to create the inside face of the sand shields in the back.



This tank will become “dixie belle” and is from the battle of “kassarine pass” in tunisia, it was the first use of shermans by US forces and these tanks were interesting in that they had round one piece cast FDA on very eary DV hulls, they still had the M3 style suspension but the later FDA gives them an unusual look.

[SheriffSherman]

This is my A4 or Sherman V and it will be finished in either Canadian service in italy or in brit service in normandy.




This will be “eternity” from “operation husky” the invasion of sicily.  It’s odd in that these tanks still had 3 piece FDA and M3 style suspensions on a mid production hull.  They also had the early turret with the early mantlet.

[SheriffSherman]

This is my “operation cobra” early M4A1 76mm as they were equipped in that battle, they were the first 76mm armed shermans used in WW2 by the US so they had early turrets with the double loader hatch, no vent guard in front hull between the drivers, and no fan at the rear of the turret so I left those items off.  I also added the hedgerow cutter.

[SheriffSherman]

Eternity will become my first Rubicon model completed.  It still needs some work on paint details on the crew and I’m considering adding scratch built stowage on the back.   My goal is to nail details like what type of FDA, what type of mantlet, tracks, and suspension when possible.  And to approximate the decals with the sheets provided by Rubicon.  It’s not model detail and it’s not a gaming piece, it’s something in between but it’s a whole lot of fun




Some of these little guys will eventually end up in vignettes or simple bases. 

[ripley]

Looking great . You might want to paint over the white on the hatches as  the picture it looks to be OD . I admit to painting most of my hatch interiors white as I think  it sets off the crew figures within , but in reality "most" tanks had interior of  hatches  painted overall  body color . Mind you many early war photos show the pre war standard of  lighter color interior on hatches to aid in interior visability when buttoned up , the change coming soon  after they realized that 2 foot square white plate gave the bad guys something to aim at 

[SheriffSherman]

Looking great . You might want to paint over the white on the hatches as  the picture it looks to be OD . I admit to painting most of my hatch interiors white as I think  it sets off the crew figures within , but in reality "most" tanks had interior of  hatches  painted overall  body color . Mind you many early war photos show the pre war standard of  lighter color interior on hatches to aid in interior visability when buttoned up , the change coming soon  after they realized that 2 foot square white plate gave the bad guys something to aim at 

Thanks Ripley, I didn’t know that and should’ve studied the photo more carefully.  I will correct them when I finish painting the crew.  the stowage and the final weathering is still pending.  I haven’t had an airbrush for a couple of years now since my compressor and airbrush went kaput.  so I’m still learning how to get by with rattle cans from home depot and paint brush.  Since my modelling time and space is very limited, these kits are giving me an opportunity to collect many of the subjects I’ve always wanted in my sherman collection.

[SheriffSherman]

I’m branching out into vehicles based on the Sherman tank to add to the collection.  I’ve always wanted one of these, just thought they looked really interesting.  Tracks posted an image of his on the M4 thread and I knew I had to have one too

Hopefully when the pershing comes out I’ll be able to make the pershing turret sherman too.

[06/24]

That looks great